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Monday, 28 June 2010

Scrap-Happy

Now some people may not respect this, but I’ve been making a few things for other people recently. I’m mid-way through cranking out a couple of Jenny skirts for two honeys, trying to apply my limited knowledge to making the (I assume) necessary adjustments for their individual figures. And Saturday night I whipped up this little purse for my mate because hers is dying its inevitable death.

When you spend most of your sewing time on lengthy garment projects, it can be a real eye-opener to make something that only takes an hour from start to finish including cutting the pieces and hand-stitching the lining to the zip tape. Creating an entire thing, one hour, está! Unbelievable. Of course, I’ve made little purses and makeup bags before, but I’ve always tended to make a load of them at a time, production-line style, either for Christmas presents or to sell on my old market stall. It was really nice to make one thing whilst thinking about the person I was making it for, hopefully infusing it with good juju that she will feel.

Aside from the time it (didn’t) take to make, the other thing I loved about this little project was that it’s made entirely from scraps. The front bird fabric was left over from my Macaron dress, the denim I used on the back came from some jeans that I cut down into shorts for my boy and the lining is formed from the crazy Chinese takeaway fabric. I still had some anchor trim left after this and this and the turquoise zip (which echoes the turquoise in the bird fabric) was floating around in a drawer. Final score: Thriftiness: 1; Consumerism: NIL.

8 comments:

Ha ha! Lucky gals! I'm actually a little ashamed reading this post because I've got two bloomers cut out (since, um, May) for two dear friends and they've been waiting patiently as I whip up stuff for myself. Perhaps this'll serve as inspiration to be a little less selfish ;)

And I definitely hear you on time and making things -- I recently whipped up a a long cushion for the couch, all straight seams, an hour tops. And a blouse and skirt I nearly finished in one sitting. It makes me feel like super-sewing-woman. Maybe we need some of these little projects to make up for the more unwieldy ones :) Great scrap use, btw!

Hey, I love those bags. I may be going against the grain here, but I love making things for other people. I would say 50-65% of what I sew, knit, or crochet go to others. There's just something so special about giving someone a gift that you've made specially for them. I think they also get that special vibe and treasure homemade gifts.

A very sweet purse - your friend is lucky. And I like the no spending on materials. I can agree with the pleasure of sewing something small and quick to finish - I recently have been making cushions and bags.

Oooh, there's a better way than hand-sewing the lining to the zipper tape though! Sew the zip first to all three layers (outer, interfacing, lining). Then sew the outside and interfacing, then the lining but leave a small gap. Pull everything through this gap so the lining's on the inside where it should be. Fold the seam allowance of the gap to the inside and hand or machine sew it shut.

Hope that makes some kind of sense!

They look absolutely lovely by the way, and if you have friends who like handmade things you obviously have the best kind of friends.